Agility Fun Run!

The facility where Archie takes his classes held an agility fun run yesterday. It was casual and low key. I signed up both Archie and Mimi. She let me know quite some time ago that she didn't care for noisy competition venues. Besides, even though she is in good condition, she isn't conditioned to do agility anymore, so I don't jump her any higher than 8" even while goofing around in the backyard. So this was a perfect opportunity for her to do some agility. And this of course would be a good way to see how Archie would behave at a real trial with other dogs in crates, bags of treats lying around, equipment banging and dogs barking, people and dogs moving around. Then there was the issue of his focus: could he hold it together when faced with something like a real course? 

The people that attended the fun run were inexperienced handlers with inexperienced dogs so our trainer set up courses using basic equipment--no tire, no spread jumps, no teeter. We had two standard courses, a tunnelers course, and a jumpers course. That's a pretty fun-packed morning for a bunch of novice dogs and handlers!

Mimi showed them how it's done with her tunnelers run. And that high pitched barking in the background? That was Archie! I totally did not notice it when Mimi and I were on the course.

On Archie's first standard run, he had several puppy-brain moments: he had to check out the Aframe just in case there were treats at the bottom, he went to sniff behind tunnels. But it wasn't that bad. His tunnelers run would have been fabulous if I hadn't been so late with information. I can see that I am going to have to step up my game with him. Mimi lets me get away with all sorts of bad handling. I'm rusty in handling a novice dog.

But oh my, Archie's jumpers run. It was a thing of beauty. It wasn't perfect of course. He's only 11 months old, and he's only been taking agility classes for about 4 months. I didn't expect perfect. I was looking for drive, focus, and joy. And I got all three.

I put a lot of effort into getting Archie to the start line. I don't want him pulling on the lead. I want him "with me"--eyes on me, focus on me. Even when he darted off to check on his leash, he still came right back. I know that I sound quite idiotic, chattering away to him in that stupid voice but he seems to like it.

I wanted a longer lead out--you can see that he quickly got ahead of me, but he headed right for the tunnel like he was supposed to. The yellow tunnel was a problem for him all morning. This time, I planned to rear cross him, a move that he's not been reading well even at home. Once I got him focused on the tunnel, that rear cross went off without a hitch. And while his wrap on that jump could have been tighter, he did collect and wrap as I asked. 

That knocked bar was my fault. I should have alerted him sooner, while he was still in the tunnel, that he needed to make a turn out of the tunnel. He came out of the tunnel too wide and in trying to make the turn to my front cross, he knocked the bar. He almost knocked the bar on the next jump too--his stride was off from the first knocked bar! But pause that video as he is coming out of that red tunnel: look at how he is already turning into me, reading my front cross and heading for the next jump. And I slowed down a bit at the end, so he did too, although he did turn out to the final jump (a hoop, actually).

Some of his jumps were boingy. That's a smooth fox terrier flaw, for sure. Their straight fronts cause them to boing a bit too much. It's inefficient and really slows them down. But some of his jumps were nicely extended and flat. I need to do more jump grid work with him but at least I know that he is capable of jumping correctly. 

At the end, he was like, great, the petting is great, but give me the darned treats you've got in that bunny fur tug! (He got them all.)

That was a complicated course with several side changes. My handling needs to be smoother and my signals earlier and more clear (less arm waving in general, I think). But Archie did a great job. I'm excited to see what he will do next!